TIME LOCK

TIME LOCK. British Lion/Romulus, UK, 1957. Robert Beatty, Lee Patterson, Betty McDowall, Vincent Winter, Robert Ayres, Alan Gifford, Larry Cross, Sandra Francis, Sean Connery. Based on a play by Arthur Hailey. Director: Gerald Thomas.

   While this is a small scale British thriller, and filmed there, the story itself takes place in Canada, as a small boy gets trapped in a bank vault right at closing time on Friday. The lock on the vault is timed so that it cannot be opened until Monday morning.

TIME LOCK

   And that’s it. That’s all there is. The boy’s parents are there, as well as a couple of bank personnel, soon joined by more bank people, a police inspector, a radio news reporter, various doctors, and a supply of workmen with hammers and sledges (including Sean Connery, in what I’m informed was his first film speaking role).

   All very professional, all quite concerned and even more competent. The mother goes into near hysterics at one point, but she’s quickly quieted, allowing the men on the job to do their job.

TIME LOCK

   No side plots, no background on any of the people involved, and not a lot in the way of suspense either, even though that’s the category I put this film in.

   If that last sentence sounds a bit snarky, well, maybe, but it is interesting to see how good men can figure out a good puzzle that’s presented to them, and then doing a good job in carrying out their ideas. On the other hand, if Sean Connery didn’t happen to have been in it, or if he’d never played James Bond, no one would have ever heard of this film.